Does Anyone Have Experience Owning These Kinds Of Sites...

[moneydriven]

I was thinking the other day about those sites where people search for other people, for whatever reason. Examples are match.com, classmates.com, etc. I imagine it must be hard for sites like these in the beginning. The service is only useful once a lot of peple have already signed up. I wonder how difficult or easy it was at first to get the initial customers and how they got the first 100 peple, for example, to sign up while they didn't have much in their database.

Does anyone have experience creating a website like this? I would love to hear about your experiences while trying to grow your list of customers and not having much of a database yet to offer them.

[mjohns]

sort off

i used to run a forum,
when they first start up its sort of the same thing because you have got to be careful because if you get into a user loop your forum is doomed.

User Loop =
When a user sign's up to a forum that has just started they post but then they leave the forum because there in hardly any user's and because they leave any new users will then do the same thing!

You have got to promote your site before it launches with a definate launch day.

[akula]

it's very difficult

i learnt a lot with hiveresume

now, we're enjoying success with studentface

achieving traction with community based sites is a function of sustained direct marketing

it's hard, it's expensive, and that's why 9/10 sites will fail at it

overall, however, same rules apply

there's no secrets involved

the formula is: success = unique value proposition + exclusive distribution channels

the point: to succeed, community sites must not be marketed to individuals. they must be marketed to existing communities.

for example: you have a forum. you're gonna fuck up if you go chasing a million different strangers to join the forum and magically become friends. to succeed, what you do is target an existing community of friends, and give them an opportunity to extend their existing discussions and friendships online via your forum

do you understand what I am saying?

[moneydriven]

You have got to promote your site before it launches with a definate launch day.

That's a good idea! I guess I hadn't really thought about that. Thanks.

[moneydriven]

for example: you have a forum. you're gonna fuck up if you go chasing a million different strangers to join the forum and magically become friends. to succeed, what you do is target an existing community of friends, and give them an opportunity to extend their existing discussions and friendships online via your forum

Great point. It makes sense.